Grand Company Ranks

[Preypacer]

To be totally fair, even if you could take an entire NPC squad into dungeons with you I doubt they would be faster than a party of real players. It's a valid concern though. I'm curious what the intent for this feature is.

Well, from what I've seen in my time playing MMOs, there's a good number of people who will happily solo, even if doing so means progressing a bit more slowly. Players will, and have done things in MMOs that are extremely counter-intuitive in the long-term, solely because they see immediate benefit in the short-term. I've long believed, and continue to, that many players tend to be their own worst enemies.

And, were Yoshi-P to, in his naive belief that players won't abuse/misuse anything he introduces, open that can of worms... forget it. The demands for making soloing more rewarding and making Platoons a more viable alternative to grouping would inevitably follow. Why would I say that? Because it's what happens any time any developer, in any MMO, makes even the slightest concession to a certain portion of their player base. It's never enough and they always insist on getting more.

We've already seen it happen in a number of situations in XIV.

Anyway, I hope Platoons never even come close to introducing that kind of possibility, and that my concerns are all for naught. I really do.